In 1999, the cottage at 1A Little O'Grady Street came on the market. The property is next door to where our garage opens into Little O'Grady Street, and its side wall forms the wall of our back garden. As it is wider than the house it backs on to, we also have a short section of boundary wall near our deck.
When it was up for sale, we listened with great misgivings to prospective buyers standing outside the property talking about adding a second storey, which would have had a very negative impact on our property. We solved the problem by going to the auction and buying it ourselves. As the ink was drying on the contract, we sent someone out to look for Rebecca, the lovely long-standing tenant, and told her she didn't need to move out.
Years passed, with Rebecca happily continuing to occupy the house. Then she bought a place of her own, but her moving out coincided with Computer Forensic Services (Peter's consulting company) being retained to provide expert evidence in two major cases in Sydney. Even with Helen working, Peter found that there was more work than the two of us could handle, and so we hired two more people, and the Little O'Grady Street house became our office. Four of us worked there for a year or so.
At about the time the cases were settled, in 2006, Helen's nephew Nick found himself homeless when the flat he was renting was sold, and the new owners wanted to move in. So he became our next tenant. He didn't mind that by now the house was rather shabby and in need of renovation, because he was paying family-friendly rent.
In 2015-2016, Nick's life changed dramatically when he acquired a wife, a baby and a house within 12 months. He moved out in May 2016, leaving the Little O'Grady Street house vacant.
We decide it's time for it to have an overdue renovation. But we also decide that when that's done, rather than re-let the house on a permanent tenancy, we'll keep it as a guest wing for our friends, and a paying b&b for friends of friends.
Sounds like a plan...
